Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Invasive Garden Ants As New Pest Insects In Europe

Date:

December 6, 2008

Source:

Public Library of Science

Summary:

A new study illuminates where Lasius neglectus, a new ant that was discovered in 1990, comes from, how it organizes its supercolonies, and how it attained its pest status. The study provides a wake-up call for closer monitoring of urban ecosystems to eliminate infestations before they become problematic.

Share This

Northern Europe has so far been free from invasive pest ants, but it seems just a matter of time until Lasius neglectus, a new ant that was discovered in 1990, will reach these latitudes and wreak havoc in parks and gardens of Northern Germany, Scandinavia and the British Isles.

Related Articles

A new study illuminates where this ant comes from, how it organizes its supercolonies, and how it attained its pest status. The study provides a wake-up call for closer monitoring of urban ecosystems to eliminate infestations before they become problematic.

Invasive pests are an increasing problem for the preservation of natural biodiversity. Among the insects, ants are disproportionally well represented among the world's 100 worst invasive pests. The red imported fire ant causes about US$ 750 million of damage in the US every year, and the Argentine ant has spread along 6000 km of coastline in southern Europe while exterminating the natural insect fauna. Several of these pest ants have been studied in parallel during recent years, which has given surprising insights in their evolutionary development.

"We found that invasive garden ants developed from species in the Black Sea region that have natural populations with small networks of interconnected nests with many queens that mate underground and don't fly. It is now becoming clear that rather many ant species share this lifestyle, so that it is no surprise that a number of them have become invasive pests with giant super-colonies based on the same principles," says Dr. Sylvia Cremer, the lead author of the new publication.

An international team of 20 researchers, coordinated from the Centre for Social Evolution (CSE) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, started this study more than five years ago. Dr Sylvia Cremer, initially a Marie Curie Fellow at CSE, later moved to the University of Regensburg, Germany to continue her studies of the invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, in cooperation with Drs Jes S. Pedersen and Jacobus J. Boomsma in Copenhagen.

As the ant's name aptly illustrates, the species was overlooked until it was described in 1990, when it already had infested an entire neighbourhood in Budapest, Hungary. Since then it has been found in more than 100 locations across Europe, where it prefers parks and gardens and quickly exterminates the native ant fauna. It resembles the common black garden ant but the number of workers crawling around is around 10 to 100 times greater.

"When I saw this ant for the first time, I simply could not believe there could be so many garden ants in the same lawn", says Professor Boomsma, one of the co-discoverers of Lasius neglectus almost 20 years ago.

The invasive garden ant is able to thrive in the temperate climate zones of Europe and Asia, and is therefore the first pest that will be able to make it to the colder temperate regions of Europe and Asia, unless we stop it from doing so. So far, it has reached Jena in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, and Warsaw in Poland.

The work by Dr. Cremer and colleagues clearly suggests that the preconditions for developing invasive ant syndromes develop naturally in the ants' native range. This is no problem as long as the ants are kept in check by their natural enemies, because the natural tendencies of these non-flying ants to spread are very limited. However, when their colonies infest large potted plants and humans start moving these around across borders, such introductions can get out of control.

"The future will therefore see many more ants become invasive, so it is about time we understand their biology and this study is a major step in that direction", says Jes S. Pedersen, who coordinates the invasive ant program in Copenhagen.

More From ScienceDaily

More Plants & Animals News

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015 — Researchers have recorded the first direct observations of the micro-scale mechanisms behind the ability of skin to resist tearing. The results could be applied to the improvement of artificial skin, ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Soil organic matter, long thought to be a semi-permanent storehouse for ancient carbon, may be much more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought. Scientists have found that the common ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Using the assessment tool ForWarn, US Forest Service researchers can monitor the growth and development of vegetation that signals winter's end and the awakening of a new growing season. Now these ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Until now electric fences and trenches have proved to be the most effective way of protecting farms and villages from night time raids by hungry elephants. But researchers think they may have come up ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — The endangered desert pupfish has made itself at home in the harsh, hot environment of Death Valley hot springs by using a surprising evolutionary adaptation: They can go for up to five hours without ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Researchers have detected a human fingerprint deep in the Borneo rainforest in Southeast Asia. Cold winds blowing from the north carry industrial pollutants from East Asia to the equator, with ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — A team of engineers and biologists reports new progress in using computer modeling and 3D shape analysis to understand how the unique grasping tails of seahorses evolved. These prehensile tails ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — As the five-year anniversary of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig approaches, a new report looks at how twenty species of wildlife are faring in the aftermath of the ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Scientists have uncovered the earliest fossilized evidence of an insect caring for its young. The findings push back the earliest direct evidence of insect brood care by more than 50 million years, ... full story

Giant Amphibian Fossils Found in Portugal

Reuters - Light News Video Online (Mar. 31, 2015) — Scientists discover a new species of giant amphibian that was one of the largest predators on earth about 220 million year ago. Tara Cleary reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Bionic Ants Could Be Tomorrow's Factory Workers

Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Mar. 30, 2015) — Industrious 3D printed bionic ants working together could toil in the factories of the future, says German technology company Festo. The robotic insects cooperate and coordinate their actions and movements to achieve a common aim. Amy Pollock reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Jan. 6, 2014 — After being inadvertently introduced in the United States from South America, Argentine ants have successfully invaded urban, agricultural, and natural settings nationwide. Entomologists have now ... full story

Feb. 11, 2013 — Researchers have found that one of the most aggressive invasive ant species in the United States -- the Argentine ant -- appears to have met its match in the Asian needle ant. Specifically, the ... full story

Nov. 1, 2011 — Odorous house ants - so called because they tend to invade houses and smell like coconut when smashed - have found their way to Hawaii. And, according to entomologists, it doesn't seem as though ... full story

Jan. 31, 2011 — Scientists have deciphered the genomes of four new ant species, including the invasive Argentine ant -- a pest which ruins picnics, infest homes and decimates native species with its massive ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.